Chapter 11 The Flash of the Universe Part 2

Sha Ruishan told Wang Miao that Ye Wenjie returned to this city in the early 1990s and taught astrophysics at the university where his father worked until his retirement.

"I just recently learned that she spent more than 20 years at the Hong'an base."

Wang Miao was shocked by Sha Ruishan's story. It took him a long time to react to his last sentence, "Could it be that those legends..."

"Most of it is true. One of the developers of the Hong'an self-interpretation system immigrated to Europe and wrote a book last year. Most of the legends you mentioned come from that book. As far as I know, they are true. Hong'an

Most of the participants in the project are still alive.”

"This is really... a legend!"

"Especially when it happened in that era, it is a legend among legends."

…

The spotlight shining on the radio antenna array has been extinguished, and the antenna has turned into a concise black two-dimensional pattern under the night sky, as if it were a row of abstract symbols, looking up at the universe at the same elevation angle, as if waiting for something. This

The sight made Wang Miao shudder. He thought of those giant pendulums in "The Three-Body Problem".

It was exactly one o'clock in the morning when they returned to the laboratory. When they turned their attention to the terminal screen, the fluctuations had just appeared. The straight lines turned into curves, with sharp peaks appearing at different intervals, and the color also turned red, like a line after hibernation.

The snake began to squirm with blood.

"It must be a failure of the COBE satellite!" Sha Ruishan said, staring at the curve in horror.

"It's not a malfunction." Wang Miao said calmly. He had initially learned to control himself in the face of such things.

"We'll know right away!" Sha Ruishan said, quickly operating on the other two terminals. Soon, he called up the real-time data of the cosmic background radiation of the other two satellites, WMAP and Planck, and displayed their changes.

for the curve——

The three curves fluctuate synchronously and are exactly the same.

Sha Ruishan took out another laptop, hurriedly started the system, plugged in the broadband network cable, made a phone call - Wang Miao heard that he was contacting the Urumqi Radio Observation Base - and waited. He did not explain anything to Wang Miao.

With his eyes fixed on the browser on the screen, Wang Miao could hear his rapid breathing. A few minutes later, a coordinate window appeared on the browser, and a red curve appeared on the window, fluctuating in precise synchronization with the other three.

.

In this way, three satellites and a set of ground observation equipment confirmed one thing at the same time: the universe is twinkling!

"Can you print out the previous curve?" Wang Miao asked.

Sha Ruishan wiped the cold sweat from his head, nodded, moved the mouse and started the printing program. Wang Miao couldn't wait to grab the first piece of paper spit out from the laser printer, drew a pencil across the curve, and compared the distance between the wave crests with the

He compared it with the Morse code table he had just taken out.

Short long long, short long long, short short short, long long short, long short long, short long long, short short long, long short long, short short

Long, long, short, short, this is 1108:21:37.

Short long long, short long long, short short short, long long short, long short long, short long long, short short long, long short long, short short

Long, long, short, short, this is 1108:21:36.

Short long long, short long long, short short short, long long short, long short long, short long long, short short long, long short long, short short

Long, short, short, short, this is 1108:21:35.

…

The countdown continues on a cosmic scale, 1108 hours left?

Sha Ruishan paced back and forth anxiously, stopping from time to time behind Wang Miao to look at the string of numbers he was writing out. "Can't you really tell me the truth?!" he couldn't help but asked loudly.

"Dr. Sha, believe me, I can't tell at the moment." Wang Miao pushed away the pile of paper with the wave curves printed on it and stared at the line of countdown numbers. "Perhaps, three satellites and one ground observation point have malfunctioned.

."

"You know this is impossible!"

"What if someone vandalizes it?"

"It's impossible! Changing the data of three satellites and one ground observation station at the same time? Then the destruction is somewhat supernatural."

Wang Miao nodded, he would rather accept this supernatural phenomenon than the flickering of the universe. But Sha Ruishan immediately took away the only life-saving straw in his arms.

"To finally confirm all this, it is actually very simple. Fluctuations of this magnitude in the cosmic background radiation are already large enough that we can detect them with the naked eye."

"What nonsense are you talking about? Now you are violating common sense: the wavelength of background radiation is 7 centimeters, which is seven or eight orders of magnitude larger than visible light. How can you see it?"

"Use 3K glasses."

"3K glasses?"

"It's a popular science gadget we made for the Capital Planetarium. Today's technology has made it possible to turn the twenty-foot horn antenna that Penzias and Wilson used to discover 3K background radiation more than forty years ago into glasses.

size, and a conversion system is set up in these glasses to compress the wavelength of the received background radiation by seven orders of magnitude and convert the 7 cm wave into red light. In this way, the audience can see with their own eyes when wearing these glasses at night

The 3K background radiation of the universe, now, can also be seen flickering in the universe."

"Where is this thing now?"

"In the planetarium, there are twenty pairs."

"I must have it before five o'clock."

Sha Ruishan picked up the phone and dialed a number. It took a long time for the other party to answer the phone. Sha Ruishan spent a lot of time convincing the man who had been woken up in the middle of the night to wait for Wang Miao at the planetarium in an hour.

When leaving, Sha Ruishan said: "I won't go with you. What I just saw is enough. I don't need such proof. I still hope that you can tell me the truth at the appropriate time. If this phenomenon leads to any research

If it works out, I won’t forget you.”

"The flashing will stop at five o'clock in the morning. Don't delve into it in the future. Believe me, there will be no results." Wang Miao said while holding the car door.

Sha Ruishan looked at Wang Miao for a long time and nodded: "I understand, something is happening in the scientific community now..."

"Yes." Wang Miao said and got into the car. He did not want to continue this topic.

"Is it our turn?"

"At least it's my turn." Wang Miao said and started the car.

Wang Miao arrived in the city an hour later and got off the car in front of the New Planetarium. The midnight lights of the city filtered through the transparent curtain wall of this huge glass building, vaguely revealing the internal structure. Wang Miao now realized that if

The architect of the new planetarium wanted to express his feelings about the universe, and he succeeded - the more transparent something is, the more mysterious it is. The universe itself is transparent. As long as your eyesight can reach it, you can see as far as you want, but the more you look, the more mysterious it becomes.

mystery.

The sleepy-eyed planetarium staff member was already waiting for Wang Miao at the door. He handed a suitcase to Wang Miao, "There are five pairs of 3K glasses in here, all of which are fully charged. The button on the left is a switch, and the button on the right is a switch."

Light adjustment. There are more than a dozen sets on it. You can watch whatever you want. I'm going to take a nap first, in the room next to the door. This Dr. Sha is really a psychopath." After saying that, he turned around and walked into the dark hall.

Inside.

Wang Miao put the box on the car seat, opened it, and took out a pair of 3K glasses. They were very similar to the helmet-mounted display in the V-suit he had just used. He picked up a pair and walked outside the car, put it on, and looked through the lenses.

The night view of the city he arrived had not changed, it was just a little darker. Only then did he remember to turn on the switch. Immediately, the city turned into hazy haloes, most of which had a fixed brightness, and some flickered or moved. He knew,

These are centimeter microwaves that have been converted into visible light. The center of each halo is an emission source. Due to the wavelength, it is impossible to see the shape clearly.

He raised his head and saw a sky with a dark red shimmer. In this way, he saw the cosmic background radiation. This red light came from more than 10 billion years ago. It is a continuation of the Big Bang and the residual heat of Creation.

No stars can be seen. Originally, because the visible light band has been pushed to the point of being invisible, the stars should be black dots, but the diffraction of centimeter waves drowns out all shapes and details.

When Wang Miao's eyes adjusted to all this, he saw the red background of the sky flashing slightly, and the entire space flashing synchronously as a whole, as if the entire universe was just a solitary lamp in the wind.

Standing under the twinkling sky, Wang Miao suddenly felt that the universe was so small, so small that he could only be imprisoned in it. The universe was a small heart or womb, and the diffuse red light was the translucent blood filling it.

, he was suspended in the blood, and the flashing period of the red light was irregular, like the irregular pulsation of the heart or uterus, and he felt a weird, abnormal and huge existence that could never be understood with human wisdom.

Wang Miao took off his 3K glasses and sat weakly on the ground, leaning on the wheel. In his eyes, the midnight city regained the realistic picture depicted in the visible light band, but his eyes wandered, capturing something else: the gate of the zoo opposite

One of the lamp tubes in the row of neon lights nearby is broken and flashing irregularly; the leaves on a nearby small tree sway in the night wind, reflecting the light of the street lights, flashing irregularly; in the distance, Beijing

The five-pointed star on the Russian-style spire of the exhibition hall also reflects the light of the car lights on different streets below, flashing irregularly...

Wang Miao worked hard to decipher these flickers according to the Morse code. He even felt that the wrinkles of several colorful flags floating in the breeze and the ripples on the surface of a puddle of water beside the road were all conveying the Morse code to him...

...He worked hard to decipher it, feeling the passing of the ghost countdown.

After an unknown amount of time, the planetarium staff member came out and asked Wang Miao if he had finished reading. When he saw him, his look made the sleepiness disappear from the man's eyes. After packing the box of 3K glasses,

The man stared at Wang Miao for a few more seconds, then walked back quickly with the box in hand.

Wang Miao took out his mobile phone and dialed Shen Yufei's number. She answered quickly. Maybe she also spent a sleepless night.

"What's the end of the countdown?" Wang Miao asked feebly.

"I don't know." After saying these three short words, the phone hung up.

What is it? Maybe it is one's own death, like Yang Dong; maybe it is a catastrophe like the Indian Ocean tsunami a few years ago, and no one will associate it with their own nano research project (this reminds me that in the past

Is every major disaster in the world, including the two world wars, the end of a ghostly countdown? There is a person like himself who is ultimately responsible that no one can imagine); maybe it is the complete destruction of the whole world.

In this perverted universe, that would be a relief for everyone... One thing is certain, no matter what the end of the ghost's countdown is, in the remaining more than a thousand hours, speculation about the end will be as cruel as the devil

Torturing him, and finally destroying him completely mentally.

Wang Miao got into the car, left the planetarium, and drove aimlessly in the city. Before dawn, the road was empty, but he did not dare to drive fast, as if the car was going fast and the countdown was going fast. When a line appeared in the east

In the morning light, he parked the car on the side of the road, got out of the car and started walking, also aimlessly. His consciousness was blank, only the countdown appeared and beat on the dark red background radiation, and he seemed to become

It became a simple timer, a death knell that tolled for no one knew who it was. At dawn, he was tired from walking, so he sat down on a bench. When he looked up at the destination he subconsciously walked to, he couldn't help but

Had a chill.

He was sitting in front of Wangfujing Catholic Church. Under the pale dawn sky, the Romanesque spire of the church looked like three giant black fingers, seeming to point him to something in the dark space.

Wang Miao stood up to leave, but a burst of sacred music from the church stopped him. Today is not a Sunday. This may be a choir rehearsal for Easter, and the song is "Illumination of the Holy Spirit" that is often sung in mass on this festival.

In the solemn and profound sacred music, Wang Miao once again felt that the universe had become smaller and turned into an empty church. The dome was hidden in the flashing red light of background radiation, and he was just one of the cracks in the floor tiles of this magnificent church.

Little ant. He felt his trembling heart being touched by an invisible giant hand. For a moment, he returned to the fragile and helpless childhood. Something in the depths of his consciousness softened like wax.

, collapsed. He covered his face with his hands and cried.

"Hahaha, another one was knocked down!"

Wang Miao's crying was interrupted by a burst of laughter from behind. He turned around and saw Da Shi standing there, blowing out a puff of white smoke from his mouth.
Chapter completed!